An extensive plain, called the Malpays, was covered by rich fields of cotton, sugar-cane, and indigo, irrigated by streams, and bounded by basaltic mountains, the nearest active volcano being at the distance of eighty miles. This district, situated at an elevation of about 2600 feet above the level of the sea, was celebrated for its beauty and extreme fertility. In June, 1759, alarming subterranean sounds were heard, and these were accompanied, by frequent earthquakes, which were succeeded by others for several weeks, to the great consternation of the neighbouring inhabitants. In September tranquillity appeared to be re-established, when, in the night of the 28th, the subterranean noise was again heard, and part of the plain of Malpays, from three to four miles in diameter, rose up like a mass of viscid fluid, in the shape of a bladder or dome, to a height of nearly 1700 feet; flames issued forth, fragments of red-hot stones were thrown to prodigious heights, and, through a thick cloud of ashes, illumined by volcanic fire, the softened surface of the earth was seen to swell up like an agitated sea. A huge cone, above 500 feet high, with five smaller conical mounds, suddenly appeared, and thousands of lesser cones (called by the natives _hornitos_, or ovens,) issued forth from the upraised plain. These consisted of clay intermingled with decomposed basalt, each cone being a _fumarolle_, or gaseous vent, from which issued thick vapour. The central cone of Jorullo is still burning, and on one side has thrown up an immense quantity of scoriaceous and basaltic lavas, containing fragments of primitive rocks. Two streams, of the temperature of 186 deg. of Fahrenheit, have since burst through the argillaceous vault of the hornitos, and now flow into the neighbouring plains. For many years after the first eruption, the plains of Jorullo were uninhabitable from the intense heat that prevailed. CRATER OF VESUVIUS IN 1829. [Illustration: [++] Crater of Vesuvius.]